Okay, so Arabian (Sea) isn't spelt Arribbean - it's meant of course to resemble 'Pirates of the Caribbean', and pirates there are in these waters, for real (as there have been for centuries apparently). Witness the portrayal in the 2013 film, Captain Phillips, of the true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the U.S. flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
After leaving Salalah, we had a five day voyage ahead of us across the Gulf of Aden, through the very narrow Bab-el-Mandeb strait (or Mandab), meaning "Gate of Tears" due to the number of shipwrecks there in the past, and into the Red Sea.
We discovered the benefits of being P.O.S.H. (port out, starboard home) during our passage here from Sri Lanka - for the majority of the day, our starboard cabin was not assaulted by the strong (and almost continuous) daytime sunshine. While it probably didn't make that much difference to the cabin temperature (air-con took care of that), at least it wasn't as relentlessly bright as the port side cabins must have been. It would be different cruising nearly north up the Red Sea, but still not a problem.
An interesting little fact we were told in one of the on-board talks, is that the Red Sea is one of the saltiest seas in the world (excluding disconnected bodies of water such as the Dead Sea), because it doesn't have any major rivers replenishing it, has minimal rainfall and has significant evaporation, so its lost volume is replaced from the Gulf of Aden/Arabian Sea, hence there is almost always a net flow through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait northwards into the Red Sea.
Before we got there though, we had to pass the lawless Somalia with its potential for pirates ......
The ship was rigged with razor wire and water cannon as anti-boarding measures .....
And private security guards kept a 24-hour watch in addition to naval vessels from our own and other friendly nations. We presumed that these guards had access to appropriate weaponry should the need arise though they were never brought up on deck.
Had the worst happened and we were really under threat of hostile boarding, all passengers and crew were required to retreat to our relevant 'safe havens' where steel doors should, in theory, protect us from bullets, and in case of violent anti-boarding manoeuvres, we were required to sit on the floor. As with the dhow voyage, this was a problem for some - getting down wasn't so bad but several needed help getting up again!
On reaching the narrow Bab-el-Mandeb strait it was not surprising that not only could we see land on both sides but other ships quite close as well. One such was the world's largest ocean liner, Cunard's Queen Mary 2, probably on her annual round-the -world cruise.
Seeing land again for the first time in two days was interesting, especially as it wasn't as featureless as many coasts we'd seen. We could even see this lighthouse ....
Once through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait we were in the safer waters of the Red Sea and the various precautions were dismantled. In due course an aggressive looking R.I.B. approached us at speed and we began to think the precautions had been taken away too early but it pulled alongside and cases of (we presumed) weaponry were offloaded and taken off to a waiting mother-ship.
The next few days cruising up the Red Sea were spiced up a little with a crew safety exercise .....
As we were already sitting in our muster station we thought it might be helpful if we set a good example and donned our lifejackets in the spirit of co-operation ....
Actually quite a useful exercise as it turned out, as the lifejackets aren't quite as simple to fit as the crew demo would indicate - but we know how to do it now and will be the first in the lifeboat if the call comes!
Closer to our next port we had an unregistered passenger This grasshopper (cricket, cicada or whatever) was about the size of my hand, quite impressive ...
Burn's Night was another excuse to dress up. Here we are with our lovely dining companions, Elizabeth & Simon:
The formal night was started with the piping-in of the haggis (sadly no live bagpipers were available) and following an appropriately Scottish sounding speech, the master-of-ceremonies duly killed the poor wee haggis prior to it being cooked for our dinner ....
Cruising up the Gulf of Aqaba, it was good to see land again after nearly five days at sea. A particularly interesting part of the Middle East here: four different countries within spitting distance (metaphorically speaking) of each other:
Egypt to the west of us, right across to the Gulf of Suez and well beyond, Israel to our north, Jordan to the north-east and Saudi Arabia to the east. All countries fortunately getting on well with each other now.
And so to Aqaba ...
After leaving Salalah, we had a five day voyage ahead of us across the Gulf of Aden, through the very narrow Bab-el-Mandeb strait (or Mandab), meaning "Gate of Tears" due to the number of shipwrecks there in the past, and into the Red Sea.
We discovered the benefits of being P.O.S.H. (port out, starboard home) during our passage here from Sri Lanka - for the majority of the day, our starboard cabin was not assaulted by the strong (and almost continuous) daytime sunshine. While it probably didn't make that much difference to the cabin temperature (air-con took care of that), at least it wasn't as relentlessly bright as the port side cabins must have been. It would be different cruising nearly north up the Red Sea, but still not a problem.
An interesting little fact we were told in one of the on-board talks, is that the Red Sea is one of the saltiest seas in the world (excluding disconnected bodies of water such as the Dead Sea), because it doesn't have any major rivers replenishing it, has minimal rainfall and has significant evaporation, so its lost volume is replaced from the Gulf of Aden/Arabian Sea, hence there is almost always a net flow through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait northwards into the Red Sea.
Before we got there though, we had to pass the lawless Somalia with its potential for pirates ......
The ship was rigged with razor wire and water cannon as anti-boarding measures .....
And private security guards kept a 24-hour watch in addition to naval vessels from our own and other friendly nations. We presumed that these guards had access to appropriate weaponry should the need arise though they were never brought up on deck.
Had the worst happened and we were really under threat of hostile boarding, all passengers and crew were required to retreat to our relevant 'safe havens' where steel doors should, in theory, protect us from bullets, and in case of violent anti-boarding manoeuvres, we were required to sit on the floor. As with the dhow voyage, this was a problem for some - getting down wasn't so bad but several needed help getting up again!
On reaching the narrow Bab-el-Mandeb strait it was not surprising that not only could we see land on both sides but other ships quite close as well. One such was the world's largest ocean liner, Cunard's Queen Mary 2, probably on her annual round-the -world cruise.
Seeing land again for the first time in two days was interesting, especially as it wasn't as featureless as many coasts we'd seen. We could even see this lighthouse ....
Once through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait we were in the safer waters of the Red Sea and the various precautions were dismantled. In due course an aggressive looking R.I.B. approached us at speed and we began to think the precautions had been taken away too early but it pulled alongside and cases of (we presumed) weaponry were offloaded and taken off to a waiting mother-ship.
The next few days cruising up the Red Sea were spiced up a little with a crew safety exercise .....
As we were already sitting in our muster station we thought it might be helpful if we set a good example and donned our lifejackets in the spirit of co-operation ....
Actually quite a useful exercise as it turned out, as the lifejackets aren't quite as simple to fit as the crew demo would indicate - but we know how to do it now and will be the first in the lifeboat if the call comes!
Closer to our next port we had an unregistered passenger This grasshopper (cricket, cicada or whatever) was about the size of my hand, quite impressive ...
The formal night was started with the piping-in of the haggis (sadly no live bagpipers were available) and following an appropriately Scottish sounding speech, the master-of-ceremonies duly killed the poor wee haggis prior to it being cooked for our dinner ....
Cruising up the Gulf of Aqaba, it was good to see land again after nearly five days at sea. A particularly interesting part of the Middle East here: four different countries within spitting distance (metaphorically speaking) of each other:
Egypt to the west of us, right across to the Gulf of Suez and well beyond, Israel to our north, Jordan to the north-east and Saudi Arabia to the east. All countries fortunately getting on well with each other now.
And so to Aqaba ...
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